So there isn’t much of a discussion here, but I’m hoping that with enough praise the developers might notice this tiny suggestion.

Vader, Royal Guard Champion, IG-88, and even Weiss all need to pop up in future campaigns as initial/reserved groups (base is required after all!).

I understand you can earn them by completing their corresponding agenda missions but: A) there’s a chance you might not draw the card B) you may draw the card but don’t have enough influence at that time C) you can loose the mission.

All these factors mean we don’t see these guys too often in campaign play and it would be nice to surprise the rebel group with old villains.

I agree with you and was sad to see they didn't. But I understand that from FFG's stand point this is counter productive as they want to promote the sale of their new villain's packs not the old ones whom you already have bought.

If you boil it all down honestly the whole sales model has greasy used car salesman smell.

I don't really agree with this. My Rebel players killed Weiss in the main campaign, I don't really want to bring him back so it feels like a more consistent story.

It's bad enough the villains turning up as often as they do as it is. We're playing through Hoth at the moment, and Dengar has turned up in all three missions we've played so far - and I'm fairly sure he's guaranteed to turn up at least once more, as well. And when we played through Twin Shadows, Boba Fett turned up twice. It makes the universe feel very, very small to have the same named characters turn up in every game, and they feel much less special because of it. (My players are already saying "oh, look, Dengar again").

Let the villains turn up, make an impact, feel like a special moment, then move on. If you're seeing Darth Vader as often as you're seeing Stormtroopers, something's wrong. And for those who disagree with me - fair enough, but that's what the Agenda missions are for! Choose those Agendas and there's a good chance you'll get them. (I won't choose those Agendas, so I won't). Putting them in missions as reserved or initial groups takes away the choice.

I don't really agree with this. My Rebel players killed Weiss in the main campaign, I don't really want to bring him back so it feels like a more consistent story.

It's bad enough the villains turning up as often as they do as it is. We're playing through Hoth at the moment, and Dengar has turned up in all three missions we've played so far - and I'm fairly sure he's guaranteed to turn up at least once more, as well. And when we played through Twin Shadows, Boba Fett turned up twice. It makes the universe feel very, very small to have the same named characters turn up in every game, and they feel much less special because of it. (My players are already saying "oh, look, Dengar again").

Let the villains turn up, make an impact, feel like a special moment, then move on. If you're seeing Darth Vader as often as you're seeing Stormtroopers, something's wrong. And for those who disagree with me - fair enough, but that's what the Agenda missions are for! Choose those Agendas and there's a good chance you'll get them. (I won't choose those Agendas, so I won't). Putting them in missions as reserved or initial groups takes away the choice.

Good point about Weiss, I’d feel odd as well seeing him again if he was defeated during a previous campaign. But hey, I can’t imagine anyone picking his agenda mission (he’s massive and can’t go indoors).

But I definitely feel that they don’t show up enough, guess it depends on your playthroughs though.

IG-88 is literally in 2 missions in the core (and one is an agenda mission) and I think our group saw the royal guard champion once.

Boba Fett is seen a lot in Twin Shadows because it’s a mini-campaign and these missions are supposed to be spectacle/event like missions.

Dengar showing up in Hoth a lot is fine with me - he is a bounty hunter after all! He’s supposed to be relentless.

Remember though, you don't actually "kill" anyone. You simply defeat or cause them to withdraw. If Weiss is "killed" in the finale, I haven't gotten there yet, so that's possible, but anytime you "defeat the boss" that requires the Rebels to win, it always results in story text saying how they're knocked out or forced to retreat. The only person we've "killed" so far is Szark in Jyn's (red) side mission...and he's not a main character/villain so that's fine...and even then it doesn't specifically say he's dead. Just that they go around the corner and you hear silence after some gun fire and Jyn makes the comments of him not being a problem anymore...

~D

Weiss gets super dead, I'm pretty sure.

BUT, being a modular game, I dont thing the timelines run in anything resembling normal (maybe star trek normal). I mean at the end of Twin Shadows...

You might want to wait till you get there.

True, you never "kill" Vader but that's because people would be like "um, how come he was still in all the movies then?" Characters who weren't in the movies don't have the same level of plot armour.

Even if we only consider heroes to have been "defeated" rather than killed, it's still boring and a very small universe to see the same enemies all the time. People who don't mind that can play their Agenda missions, problem solved. People who do, shouldn't have to sit through Vader or IG or whoever coming back as reserved (i.e. effectively compulsory, short of house rules) groups in more than one campaign.

Weiss gets super dead, I'm pretty sure.

Weiss dies in Final Stand but if the Rebels win Desperate Hour they take him alive.

On topic: my personal feeling is the OC imperial villains are intended to be http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArcVillain(s). So they don't want to include them in other campaigns besides agendas. For the rest of the villains I'd like to see them some more without using agendas (except Dengar who's over saturated in RTH) not frequently but occasionally. Also I'm almost certain there'll be at least one new mission including Vader when "Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight" gets released.

I'd be fine with IG-88 appearing as a reserved group in a few more misssions (like 1 story mission per big expansion). It'd make him see some actual use since he's barely in the main campaign and his 'high cost' makes it hard to justify using him as an open group. The story could just say it's not IG-88 specifically but another droid of the same model.

RGC could see a little more use too in my opinion. It's not like there was only 1 of them in the Galaxy after all.

Vader and Weiss though.... I hope never to see them again. While Weiss makes sense for all of his appearances in the main campaign, Vader appears way too much for being such an important person in the Star Wars story. He has much more important things to do than fight the B team.

I love creating my own Narratives with villains. in one of more core campaigns. I won IG-88 Early, I brought him in every second mission or sometimes more so. I role played when he was destroyed, and if he came back i said it was IG88-A or IG88-B etc. (i even used my voice changer modulator to do his voice.)

if the heroes did beat a villain i would add some flavour text as how he escaped.

Another narrative example, was in Mak's side mission. the Royal guard Champion turned up. they had a battle with him, and buried him under some rubble at the end of the mission (which i added as flavour text.)

the heroes then did the story mission where they were abducted by the star destroyer. in that mission the Royal guard Champion turns up again, but the mission describes it as you have never seen him before. I took this chance to describe him with battle damaged amour from their Mak encounter. i also gave him some lines. I made it a personal vendetta from the Royal guard Champion to track down the heroes that bested him in his own star destroyer.

It worked really well, I have found reading the mission perhaps a day before as the imperial player can help you think of ways to twist and turn the story. I also try to keep a log of each mission and read it to the heroes at the end of the campaign, so they can relive their adventure.

It doesn't have to be like Descent where a baddie shows up every quest, but it would sure be nice to see some of these figures we spent the money on re appear in future missions without us having to severely hamper our influence spending.

Against one of my groups I would probably be fine to bring a villain along, but against the other who are quite good it would be suicide and I have to play really smart with my threat/influence.

Was flipping through Bespin the other day and I was delighted to notice a certain figure in the “Cloud City’s Secret” mission. Really wish we got to play that one!

Here’s hoping IG-88 makes an appearance in Jabba’s Realm!

I mean, Boba Fett would be sweet as well, though I’m not sure how you implement an expansion figure into a mission like that...

Special Set-up: You may include a unique figure with the hunter trait into your open groups for this mission without having to win its corresponding agenda mission. ?

Jabba's Skiff Mission:

Boba Fett is deployed to the skiff. After an attack targeting Boba Fett resolves, if Boba Fett suffered one or more damage, place Boba Fett in any space on the Sarlacc. Boba Fett is then defeated.

I think this could work, but remember the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy is killed by someone bumping him. I think he should have an automatic dodge (like the cam droid) and minus 10 health. He also shouldn't get the die and auto block and evade. That way blast damage, cleave, etc. Is the only way to kill him.

...

Thank you FFG

Ya this is great. My group has complained multiple times that there isn't enough variety of villains in the campaigns. It's either not enough (core) or over kill (Dengar in Hoth). This should help balance things out. I might house rule this so I can pay influence to trade my villain selection in as well every 3 missions or something similar.

The only thing that sucks about this is that the villain missions are going to see even less play now than they did before. But we can't have our cake and eat it to! I'd rather this than nothing.

I've actually started building my own 3-4 mission campaigns for my regular group out of missions we never play. I put together some weak in the moment two sentence flavor text to bridge them together, but its just fun to play missions that normally never see the table.

I don't really agree with this. My Rebel players killed Weiss in the main campaign, I don't really want to bring him back so it feels like a more consistent story.

It's bad enough the villains turning up as often as they do as it is. We're playing through Hoth at the moment, and Dengar has turned up in all three missions we've played so far - and I'm fairly sure he's guaranteed to turn up at least once more, as well. And when we played through Twin Shadows, Boba Fett turned up twice. It makes the universe feel very, very small to have the same named characters turn up in every game, and they feel much less special because of it. (My players are already saying "oh, look, Dengar again").

Let the villains turn up, make an impact, feel like a special moment, then move on. If you're seeing Darth Vader as often as you're seeing Stormtroopers, something's wrong. And for those who disagree with me - fair enough, but that's what the Agenda missions are for! Choose those Agendas and there's a good chance you'll get them. (I won't choose those Agendas, so I won't). Putting them in missions as reserved or initial groups takes away the choice.

I can certainly agree on this point. It starts to become too much like playing skirmish if the the same enemy turns up too often.

Jabba's Skiff Mission:

Boba Fett is deployed to the skiff. After an attack targeting Boba Fett resolves, if Boba Fett suffered one or more damage, place Boba Fett in any space on the Sarlacc. Boba Fett is then defeated.

I believe Jabba's realm is going to precede the event of Return of the Jedi. I think the heroes will be involved in battles that prepare the way for Luke's arrival. Boba Fett's death didn't happen when the heroes were present. Sadly, I already know there is a sarlacc tile, so what I said is probably irrelevant. But how is the mission going to play out? Are you just going to bring Luke into your party? Because Han, Chewie, Lando, Leia, C3PO, and R2D2 were all there too. And then is the Empire playing going to bring in Boba Fett?

I always hated the punk-a** way Lucas took Boba out. He was giving a big FU to the fans who preferred him over his own characters. Boba would have just launched a missile from the barge and destroyed the skiff, and then he would have went back to the party.

Let the villains turn up, make an impact, feel like a special moment, then move on. If you're seeing Darth Vader as often as you're seeing Stormtroopers, something's wrong.

I can certainly agree on this point. It starts to become too much like playing skirmish if the the same enemy turns up too often.

You gotta remember that you still have to pay plenty of threat to bring out the big, iconic characters of the Star Wars Universe.

Even though you select Vader as one of your earned villains, it’ll be difficult to bring him out for the majority of missions.

I think the focus of this deck is to beef up villains in initial/reserved groups more so than “villain spamming” every mission.

But it’s just nice having that villain option. Picturing Weiss stomping around on Hoth or IG-88 teaming up with Bossk on Bespin is just awesome.